Miss Aine

I'd had an order recently through Facebook for three Rag-Dolls to be carried by flowergirls at a wedding next summer, 2014 (a very organised bride!) It was a very fun project to work on and I'm glad to say they made it to Scotland unharmed - I'm always a little apprehensive sending stuff I've spent hours working on off in the post. The dolls were to be similar but different so I selected one colour for each from the flower-y fabric, which is the fabric for the flower-girls' dresses. Each skirt is embroidered with the name of the flower-girl and the date of the wedding. Just wish I'd thought of this idea for my own wedding!

Just realised I never showed a picture of the wedding toppers that went to Brooklyn - they looked very dapper! And seeing them gave my sister the idea of getting wedding toppers as a present for her friend's wedding next week. Busy, busy, busy here! I made cap sleeves for the bride's dress as follow: Cast on 6 sts. Row 1:kfb,k to last st,kfb - 8 sts. Row 2: p Row 3: as for row 1 - 10 sts. Row 4: p Cast off. Sew in place over arm with cast off edge as lower edge of sleeve.

One of my lovely Etsy customer had her wedding featured on The Wedding Chicks website. (click on the pic above to get through to the article) And my little cake toppers made it into the article. Woo hoo! Looks like the kind of wedding I wished I could have created for my own wedding.

All-over lace dress for the bride this time, with a veil with lace on the end. I also had to knit their little dog.

The wedding party: The flowergirl and all the bridesmaids: Smem did a sterling job at the wedding and was on her ultimate best behaviour all day long. We were both very proud of her that day. And of course, congrats to my brother and his lovely wife and best of luck to them in the future.

Finished, and just in time. Not bad going considering I only started Monday afternoon, spent half of yesterday shopping and spent a few hours finishing Smem's dress. After all the Christmas knitting on 4mm and 5mm needles, it was nice to get back to my small 2.75mm needles and my tiny perfect stitches.

Another custom order for an Etsy customer.

Made as a custom order for a lovely Etsy customer. I had great fun making these!

We were at a wedding for one of my friends at the weekend so I had to make a little card real quickly on Friday night. This was super quick and simple to make. I double stamped a bride and groom image on a rectangle of cream card - light blue at the back, then black over it to give it a shadow effect. Stuck the cream card onto a slightly bigger rectangle of light blue card and then stuck that onto a larger rectangle of purple/blue card. I left a large chunk of the darker card free on one side and stuck a flower to the bottom. Super simple, super quick but I think it looks really cute.

I knitted little wedding toppers for our wedding cake (sorry the pictures aren't great - stolen off Facebook again!). These were knit specific to use - the guy has a little coif of hair - but I may try and make a more neutral pair for a pattern and write that up. They were very funny looking and everyone seemed to like them.

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to everyone for the lovely message regarding PetitePurls. On re-reading the submission info, I did notice that it says that they can change their mind at any stage and not include your pattern. So hopefully I was tooting my horn a bit early! Its a very exciting prospect. I think I may make more designs to submit to magazines. I really like CraftsBeautiful and of course Knitty always has great patterns. I have also been approached by ePatternsCentral about selling patterns on their website. Not sure how that will pan out. I will have to 'Americanise' all my patterns for that one! In wedding news, we went to the hotel last night for a food tasting and to go over final plans. Its so exciting. They are all really really really nice in the hotel so it bodes well for the day. And we've been keeping a keen eye on our costs so its not going to cost an arm and a leg, but we won't be skimping too much either. 3 weeks today!...

Its finished and it didn't take long at all. I got the pattern for this cape on Ravelry. Its from the Drops design team. Really easy to make and super quick. I can't believe I have it finished so quickly. So now I can get started on this month's giveaway pattern. I only started today so the giveaway will not be until next weekend (26/27th). Hopefully it will turn out nice!

So I ended up wearing the pink stripey dress to the wedding on Saturday. The green dress I had bought was just a bit too revealing around the bust area! And I ended up putting a mustard-yellow knit belt (that I'd gotten with a cardigan ages ago) around the middle. And it all worked out in the end. In our wedding planning, things have changed dramatically. When I went into the church for mass on Sunday half of it was completely covered with scaffolding. And there's enough scaffolding still outside to cover the other half! So our wedding has been moved to Straffan, which is a little church closeby which is part of the same parish. But it does mean my head is in a bit of a fuss these fews days. It should work out though. Not sure about this month's pattern yet. I haven't even started it! A bit obsessed by wedding stuff at the moment to be inspired.

I saw a picture either on the internet or in a magazine (can't remember) of a centrepiece which just consisted of 3 Gerbera daises in a vase. It looked really nice so today I got 3 flowers to try it out. It looks really clean and simple. The room that our wedding reception will be held in has a blue and gold carpet, ivory tablecloths and chair covers and gold ties on the chairs, so I think the yellow would be really nice. Plus, it would be really quick and easy to do the arrangements, and not very expensive!

Oh my gosh. My head is full of wedding stuff at the moment. I'm trying to sort out what way I want to do the flowers and how much it will cost. I keep getting side-tracked by other colours, etc. I like so many flowers, and colours, so its really hard to pick. I did one thing done - Smem's cardie for the wedding. Its got a little flower on the front but its hard to see done in the navy. I may make a fabric flower instead in the fabric from the dress. I also started to pull apart the third bridesmaid dress so that I can make a start on making Smem's dress. I can't believe August is half gone already. I'll have to get started on a new pattern for the end of this month's giveaway. So much work!

The wedding preparations have taken another push this week. Yesterday I went down to Liffey Valley (the closest shopping centre) to source accessories. I got another of the bridesmaid dresses on sale for only €17.98 to take apart and make a dress for Smem. And in H&M I found wraps that are an exact colour match for the dresses - so I bought two of them. Boleros would have been better, easier to manage, but the chances of getting them in the right colour was looking pretty slim. In H&M I also got a corsage for my dress, a wrap with some sequins and a pair of cream shoes. I settled on a kind of mauve colour rather than the pink that had been in my head. A little bit more grown-up and fits in with the tone of the bridesmaid dresses. Now just need jewellery plus shoes and bags for the bridesmaid. Oh, and to make Smem's dress (have a cardigan that I started last night half finished already!), sort out something for table centrepieces for the reception, make tealight holders...

The wedding planning has gone into high gear this week. I visited our local florists on Thursday to get prices and now have to go to the flower market in Dublin city and see how much I'd save if I did the flowers myself. Before you ask, I've never done flowers for anything like that before, just arranged some in a vase at home so its a scary prospect. I'd want to be saving quite a bit of money. We'll see ;) I've also been working on the invitations. I got this cool stamp when I was in Toulouse, France visiting my sister back in 2008. It's really sweet. I'm printing it on cream card which will be framed by blue and burgandy paper on an A5 cream card. We're going to print inserts to put in the cards and probably tie them with ribbon - not confirmed yet! I've made a bit of progress on my Ladies' Day dress. I've cut out and sewn together the skirt. Now I have to put in the zip, sew the skirt to the bodice and hem it. I didn't think ...